FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE
The Story
The film begins in a similar way as The Good, The Bad & The Ugly with an introduction of the main characters in the film. The first character who appears is Colnel Mortimer (Van Cleef) who is a bounty hunter. It appears that at this point he is searching for an outlaw. After tracking the outlaw to his hotel room, he calmly walks back to the outside of the hotel and promptly shoots down the horse of the escaping outlaw with a rifle. He then kills the outlaw.
The scene then switches to "Manco"(Eastwood) who is also a bounty hunter, the character is also introduced in pursuit of an outlaw. Manco is shown walking into a bar, before leaving he has killed his target and three of his thugs.
The next character introduced is that of "El Indio" (Volante), the scene switches to a prison, in a dark corner is a man covered in bed sheets. Suddenly some men appear, slowly the character of El Indio appears from beneath the bed sheets and he and his gang escape. The outlaws then appear at the house of the man who gave El Indio up to the authorities. El Indio then suggests that because the money the traitor received was spent on bringing up a family, that he too owns a share of the family. El Indio orders some of his henchmen to take the traitor's wife and child outside and shoot them. After a while two shots can be heard in the background. Following this event El Indio tells the traitor that a shoot - out will occur between them, he pulls out a musical time - piece and tells the traitor to start shooting when the music stops. El Indio wins and the traitor is killed, he then prompts one of his men to give him a shot of opium which he proceeds to smoke, with a haunting music playing in the background.
Meanwhile, Mortimer and Manco have decided that they will hunt El Indio. Mortimer is impressed by talk of Manco and decides that to catch El Indio they will have to work together. Mortimer approaches Manco and suggests that the best idea would be if Manco attempted to infiltrate El Indio's gang. The reward that they will collect will not only be for El Indio but also many others have high values on their heads such as the hunchback (Kinski), which Mortimer proceeds to aggrevate by lighting a match using the hunchback's face. The hunchback is about to attack Mortimer, but is restrained by other members of the gang who do not want to attract attention to themselves. The reason for this is that they are scoping out a bank which they are planning to rob.
Mortimer suggests to Monco that he should be the one who should infiltrate the gang and that he should do this by breaking out a friend of Indio's. Monco does this and is accepted as a member of the gang, he is told that he and three others from the gang will attack a bank in Santa Cruz so that El Indio will then be able to attack the original bank in El Paso. The robbery is pulled off successfully, and the gang moves east. Mortimer already knows this and is there waiting for them. When the gang enter a bar the hunchback sees Mortimer and taunts him into a shoot - out. Mortimer kills the hunchback and tells Indio that only he can open the safe for them, this is because there is an explosive charge in it. That night, after opening the safe, Monco and Mortimer sneak into the room where the safe is held and take the money. Mortimer then using chemicals closes the lock on the safe and they leave, they are caught however by Indio and are beaten severly by his gang. During the night one of Indio's gang, Nino (Brega) sets them free and gives them their guns. Indio then explains that he has known that Monco is a bounty hunter since the day he joined the gang. He then tells Nino that his plan is that he will set his gang after Monco and Mortimer and they will kill each other, while he and Nino escape with the money.
When the morning arrives we see Mortimer and Monco loading their guns in silence, then Mortimer asks Monco for Indio to which Monco agrees. Indio meanwhile is resting when Nino appears, he has been stabbed by another member of the gang, Groggy, who is on to Indio and his plan. He tells Indio to open the safe, which he does, but the safe is empty because Manco hid the loot after stealing it in a tree. Groggy can tell from Indio's face that he did not steal it and gives him an empty gun for when Manco and Mortimer return for the cash. Manco has during this time killed all of Indio's men. Sitting at a table Indio gazes at the musical time - piece which has a picture of a woman inside. Groggy notices this and asks.
" That Watch, for a long time i've wanted to ask. I can see it means a lot to you, Indio ... Why?"
A flashback then occurs through the eyes of Indio which shows him catching his girlfriend with another man, he kills the man. He then proceeds to rape the girl, she reaches for a gun on the side of the bed, a shot rings out... She has killed herself. Indio is awoken by a call from "Douglas Mortimer", the name strikes a chord with Indio, Groggy can see this and throws him an ammo belt. From the building Groggy attempts to escape, but is shot down by Mortimer. Mortimer runs for the building, but suddenly Indio appears and shoots the gun from Mortimer's hand. They then square off for a shoot - out, Mortimer is at a disadvantage because his gun is still on the floor. Indio tells Mortimer when the music from the time - piece stops they shoot. Just as the music stops, Monco walks in with a replica time - piece which belongs to Mortimer. Holding a rifle, he points it at Indio while he puts another gun in Mortimer's holster and then he sits down, the music slowly dies down and finally stops. A tear falls from the eye of Indio, then Mortimer shoots first and kills him, he then walks up to his body and tells Monco that all the money is his, Mortimer's reason for killing Indio was revenge for Indio raping his sister and making her commit suicide. Mortimer takes the other watch from Indio's hand and his own from Monco and then leaves. Monco, meanwhile is adding up the value of the dead bodies he has piled up in a carriage. The total is missing $5000, turning around quickly Monco shoots Groggy who had got up and was aiming at Monco's head. Mortimer turns around and shouts
"Any trouble, boy"
"No, old man"
Monco then turns away, gets on the carriage and begins to ride away, he then stops by a tree and pulls down a sack containing the money stolen from the El Paso bank earlier in the film.